On Wednesday, October 10, 2018, VPCSF hosted a Villa Park City Council Candidate forum where the candidates squared off in front of voters to discuss a variety of City topics. The following is a transcript of the event including the full Candidate Forum transcript with speaker names and time codes, which highlights the text as the video plays.
The original Candidate Forum took place on Wednesday, October 10, 2018 from 7 pm to 9 pm. You can also watch it again daily at 4:30 PM and 6:30 PM on Spectrum (formally Time Warner Cable) Channel 3 and AT&T U-verse Channel 99.
Complete election coverage can be found here.
Watch and read the full Candidate Forum transcript with speaker names and time codes.
Full Transcript of Villa Park Candidate Forum
Read transcript: Download Candidate Forum transcript as PDF
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:10:21 Is this working? Is this working? No.
Speaker 2: 00:10:25 Yes, yes it is.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:10:26 Can you hear me in the back? The deputy says he can hear me.
Jill Kuli: 00:10:30 Good evening.
Speaker 2: 00:10:30 Hello. You’re live too.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:10:41 Excuse me, if we can get everybody’s attention, we’ll get going. Are we all set? All right. It’s all yours.
Jill Kuli: 00:10:48 If you have some questions on cards, please hand them to our pages at this time, and if during the time of the questioning period, you have some others, raise your hand and the cards will be brought to you.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:11:07 Why don’t you use this mic? They’re not hearing you very well.
Jill Kuli: 00:11:13 Well, this is cool. I am so old. I don’t squat very well. Good evening. Welcome from the foundation. My name is Jill Kuli and I’m the person who does the communications for the foundation. Now, if you’re kind of wondering what is this foundation, it’s started by the city. It is a city organization, and it was established by the city in 2002 as a 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit organization designed to increase the potential of citizen volunteerism and special events without major city expense. Memberships, sponsorships and donations to the foundation are tax deductible to the extent of the law, and so I’m urging you to go look on our foundation website and if your name is not there as a member, join us. I want to thank all those who are the members and our sponsors, because they were the ones who have funded this evening, so please thank them too as you look for those names.
Jill Kuli: 00:12:28 Tonight is a very big pleasure for me and I welcome our candidates. We have Robert Collacott, Diana Fascenelli, Crystal Miles and Chad Zimmerman, and I’m so pleased to say that we have the ultimate in moderators. It’s Carolyn Cavecche. She’s from America Orange. she serves on the Orange Taxpayers Association as a CEO and President and she also serves on the Oversight Committee for the school districts Measure S.
Jill Kuli: 00:13:03 Then I’m really happy to have Al Tello, who is field deputy for Todd Spitzer, our supervisor. Ed Carter, who is our foundation President, is going to be the timer. He’s the one who is if you go over time, is going to be holding up a paddle. I don’t think he’s going to swat you with it but he is going to hold it up.
Jill Kuli: 00:13:26 Our pages are Birgit Miller, who is a member of our, there she is, member of the board of the foundation, and Karen Cohen, who’s also a member of our foundation board. I thank them for being able to help with that. I think that we’ll be able to get started right away and I’m going to hand this over to Carolyn.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:13:51 Wonderful. Good evening, everyone. Everyone can hear me in the back, right? Wonderful. Well, I’m sure as all of you know, we’re here tonight. This is a forum for the Villa Park City Council, and we’re going to be using a format that’s based primarily on the League of Women Voters’ unbiased guidelines. That’s a process we’re going to have, but before we start, I do have a couple announcements that I’m going to make. I’m going to explain the process but before I do that, I just want you all to know, I served for 12 years on the Orange City Council.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:14:23 Candidate forums where my least favorite activities when I campaigned for office, and I’m sure that all of you feel the same way that I do that just putting your name forward and being a part of this process really deserves everyone’s respect when they go through the process. I understand that there are some of you here who might love some of these candidates and I understand that there’s some of you here who may not love some of these candidates very much, but I just want to be very clear on how this meeting is going to be run this evening.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:14:57 There will be no calling out from the audience. There will be no booing, no hissing, no heavy sighs, no anything after any of the answers from any of the members who are sitting up there and answering the questions. We also ask that you hold all your applause as well. If there is any interruptions from anyone on the dais as their fellow candidates are speaking, or anyone from the audience, we’re going to stop and we’re going to take a breath for a little bit, and if someone repeatedly cannot be respectful to the candidates, we’re going to stop and we’re going to ask you to leave. As long as everyone understands those guidelines, I think tonight is going to be very informative for everyone who is sitting here and everyone who’s watching on television who are also wanting to hear the responses and if there’s a lot of uproar in the audience, people out in Villa Park who are going to be watching this won’t be able to hear the responses.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:15:55 What candidates are going to do, they’re going to have two minutes each for their opening. We’ve drawn numbers and it just worked out perfectly because it’s going to be in the order that you see up there from Robert to Diana to Crystal to Chad. That’s the order that the opening is going to go. They’ll have two minutes for their closing and we’re going to go in the opposite direction, straight down as well. There will be one minute to respond to all of the questions we have from the audience and please feel free to continue to fill out the cards during this evening.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:16:26 The pages are here. They’ll collect them although Al is screening and there is a whole lot of questions so some of you came very prepared tonight and that’s great. We also have the timekeeper that was introduced. He’s going to keep track. For the candidate, he’s going to raise the one minute when you’re halfway through your opening and your closing. Can you show them the one minute? Then during the questions, he’s going to raise 30 seconds when you’re halfway through and then when you’re done, there’s going to be a stop and if you’re in the middle of a sentence, go ahead and finish your sentence. If it gets longer than that, we’ll interrupt you and we’ll stop you on that as well. For the questions, please address all of your questions to every candidate because those are the questions we’re going to go through first, and if we have time, we may get to individual questions, but those individual questions there has to be one for every single candidate. We’re just not going to continue to lob individual questions at one candidate. You can ask yes or no questions but go ahead and put that in the card that this is a yes or no is what you’re looking for.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:17:36 Again, any questions that are inappropriate to what the Villa Park City Council does, we’re not going to ask them because they have no control over that, so something about schools, there’s no reason to ask that question. However, joint use facilities with the schools might be something that the Villa Park City Council is going to do so with that, do the candidates have any questions?
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:17:59 I’ve explained it. You’re ready to go. Oh, cell phones. Everybody turn their cell phones off or turn to vibrate. In that way, we won’t have any interruptions with that too. That’s good. Thank you so much.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:18:13 With that, the timer ready? Okay. Mayor Collacott, you’re going to be the beginning and you will have two minutes for your opening statement.
Bob Collacott: 00:18:23 Thank you. I would like to thank you for letting me to Council. It has been an honor and a privilege to serve you on Council and as Mayor. This has provided opportunities to contribute to the city, which has been my home for 37 years. My education includes a master’s degree from UCI and an MBA from Cal State Fullerton. My professional accomplishments include the Upper Newport Bay restoration project and founding the California Stormwater Quality Association. As a resident, I volunteered extensively at academic and athletic school programs, Indian Princess, Cub Scout, Webelo Den Leader, Villa Park Little League, high school baseball Booster Club and of course, since 2014, have served as a council member.
Bob Collacott: 00:19:03 I ran for council to make a positive difference and my platform is fiscal responsibility, public safety and protecting home values. I’ve delivered on this platform and more. I stretched our limited budget by engaging skilled residents, establishing the law enforcement advisory and the infrastructure management advisory committees. I recruited law enforcement and engineering professionals to maintain our low crime rate and cost effectively manage our infrastructure. Their contributions are provided at no cost. To protect home values, I stopped the state high density zoning mandate in the residential areas, revised zoning to facilitate residential improvement projects and derailed a project to norms that proposed running 73,000 gravel trucks through Villa Park and ensured that Measure S modifications at Villa Park High do not impact residents or endanger student safety. I supported maintaining highly funded reserves, increased funding for street maintenance and establishment of a Section 115 trust to reduce unfunded pension liabilities.
Bob Collacott: 00:19:59 I coordinated with supervisor Todd Spitzer to engage Orange County flood control resources to repair an eight foot diameter storm drain that collapsed before forecasted rains. The repairs were completed one hour before the storm arrived, averting a flooding disaster. I’ve delivered what I promised and more. With your vote, I will contribute much more. Thank you.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:20:18 Thank you. Councilwoman Fascenelli?
Diana Fascenelli: 00:20:21 Thank you, everyone for coming. I appreciate you taking the time this evening from your families and your hobbies. I am and have been a councilwoman here for six years. Thank you very much for allowing me to do that. I certainly would like the opportunity to do it for another four years.
Diana Fascenelli: 00:20:40 I work very hard. My husband works very hard to be able to live in this wonderful community, which all of you live in. To live in Villa Park with the home values at $1.5 million and up is certainly something for everybody here to be proud of that because we could not do it if we didn’t work hard, if we weren’t smart and if we didn’t have a government that took care of the city like we do.
Diana Fascenelli: 00:21:02 Since the time that I’ve been on council, I’ve added $600,000 or been a contributor to add $600,000 to our general reserves, which is very important when things go wrong. We have a very limited budget, and we have to be very careful how we spend that money since we don’t have any sales tax revenue other than our small town center. What we do have is our assets, which is our homes, which is the most important thing that we have in this city.
Diana Fascenelli: 00:21:28 In that, my platform is to keep us safe and to get the property values at the levels that they are and to continue to appreciate, which according to the market right now, is at 7% last year and this year. I also want to let you know my community service has all been to Villa Park for the last 20 years. I am the chairman of the Measure S Bond Committee for OUSD. I have three children. All three are in high school. We are members of very many charity leagues here in the city of Villa Park, and I certainly would like to serve you for the next four years. Thank you.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:22:06 Thank you. Miss Miles?
Crystal Miles: 00:22:07 Hi. Good evening. I’d like to say thank you all for attending, also our moderator and the foundation for participating in this event.
Crystal Miles: 00:22:15 My name is Crystal Miles. I’m running for City Council. I look around the room and I see that it is densely packed and this just affirms my reasons for running. My husband and I moved here 14 years ago, and like most of you, we enjoy the large lot sizes, small community, the hometown feel, close proximity to freeways, also the award winning schools and the low crime.
Crystal Miles: 00:22:40 We are a rare community and one that I will work very hard in protecting. My community involvement started over eight years ago with the Villa Park Little League as co-player agent and I have assisted also in fundraising. Four years ago, I joined the Community Services Foundation and I serve as the governance chair. I also assist in standard tour, boat parade as well as the Halloween Fest.
Crystal Miles: 00:23:03 During this campaign season, I have been walking the streets, introducing myself to residents and asking them what it is about our city that they like, what is it about our city they don’t like, what’s important to them. To all the residents I’ve had the pleasure to meet, I want to say I’ve heard you. There’s a lot that I haven’t met yet and give me time and I will. My background education is science. I have a master’s in tumor immunology and I’ve spent several years working in R&D.
Crystal Miles: 00:23:29 About eight years ago, my husband need my assistance, and I began working with him facilitating the growth of our industrial distribution business that’s been located in the city of Orange for the past 17 years. I now oversee the accounting and the HR functions.
Crystal Miles: 00:23:46 How am I going to help the city now? I’d like to start by letting you know that the residents, the City Council and the city staff has my commitment to work toward the best interest of the residents and the city in a mutually supportive manner. I have suggestions but I don’t have all the answers. I’m willing to look at problems with logic, data and in cooperation with our city staff. I’m excited to be here and I look forward to the next four years.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:24:10 Thank you, Mr. Zimmerman?
Chad Zimmerman: 00:24:12 Hi. Greetings to all Villa Park residents both in attendance and online. I’m Chad Zimmerman. I’d like to start by thanking the Villa Park Community Services Foundation, especially Jill Kuli for sponsoring this candidates forum. I’d also like to thank Carolyn Cavecche for taking her time as well as Al Tello, thank you very much.
Chad Zimmerman: 00:24:32 I have a candidate statement online. It’s also in The Sentry and it’s in the voter information packet that everybody’s received. It’s got my personal background. It’s also got my job employment history and a detailed list of community involvement, from Cub Scouts where I was Scout Master to Villa Park Rotary, where I was President last year.
Chad Zimmerman: 00:24:55 I grew up in Palos Verdes, which is a little bigger than Villa Park, but it has the same small town feel, no streetlights, larger lot sizes, friendly caring neighbors and the sense of security and peace of mind that goes along with that.
Chad Zimmerman: 00:25:11 I’ve been involved in Villa Park community since I moved here. My aim has been to work with residents of our community to support existing programs that enhance our community’s sense of togetherness. I believe the more involved we all are as neighbors, the safer and more enjoyable this community is. My first objective in joining the Villa Park City Council is to bring my volunteer and leadership experience to the city. I am someone who is able to see issues from different perspectives, come up with new ideas and very often find common ground when two sides cannot agree on an issue.
Chad Zimmerman: 00:25:44 Sometimes, this means compromise from both sides, and sometimes it means a new approach able to include the most important ideas. I think it’s critical to elect new members to City Council to bring back a higher level of stability and respect to the Villa Park City Council. I’m hoping tonight to share some of my thoughts and my approach to any issues the council will face, so that you’ll have the confidence in my abilities to be able to trust that I will make decisions that will keep Villa Park is safe and as healthy as it can be during the next four years.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:26:15 Great. Thank you so much. Well, we’re ready to get to the audience questions now, and the one thing I neglected to say when we started is we have a random order that we’re going to be asking the questions and it’s done in a way that nobody follows the same person each time, so they have it up there as well, hoping between the five of us, we’ll be able to keep the order down, but we’re going to go to our first question and Mr. Zimmerman is answering the first question first, and that is what are the top three challenges facing Villa Park in the coming year and how do you propose to address those?
Chad Zimmerman: 00:26:53 I see a few issues that Villa Park has. One, we have recently had an emergency that has rediverted some of our funds towards from our reserves. We need to replenish. I think that there are a common set of values and principles that we all need to uphold as a City Council, that we have to had some disagreement. There needs to be some resolution to that to allow the council to work together. I think that will also remove some of the the dissonance that we’ve heard up here.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:27:27 Okay, thank you. Mayor Collacott, you’re second.
Bob Collacott: 00:27:30 Okay, first of all, we have several challenges. First is we have a state mandate that we’re facing to provide high density low income housing. The fundamental character of Villa Park is founded on low density higher quality housing, and this mandate is diametrically opposed to this objective. Villa Park must now begin to identify strategies to comply with this mandate without compromising the fundamental character of our city. Yes, we need to balance our budget. Sales tax, which is a significant portion of the budget in most cities in California, is only a small element of our revenue due to the smaller commercial development.
Bob Collacott: 00:28:05 Further, in January 1, 2018, Orange County assessment rule of taxable property values for Villa Park increased only 4.55% versus 6.23% countywide. In addition to facing large unfunded pension liability costs, our infrastructure demands significant investments, and too many of our residents live on streets that are in poor or fair condition. We also found problems with our aging storm drains and sanitary sewers that will require significant investments. Our city will be challenged to carefully meet these challenges within a slowly growing budget.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:28:36 Thank you very much. Councilman Fascenelli, three challenges.
Diana Fascenelli: 00:28:40 One of them, the first one is certainly our budget. Our budgetary needs drive everything here and as I said in my opening statement, it’s our property taxes that drive what the city has. The second is aging infrastructure. It is not that we have to replace everything at the same time, but we do have aging infrastructure and that includes our streets. That includes our sewers, that includes a lot of things that we have that we do need to maintain. The third one would be actually how we do run the government on the inside, and that would be the City Hall here. We need to actually look at how we’re running it, what kind of stuff we have, what kind of salaries that we have, are we doing it efficiently and it’s time now to look at how we do run the business of the city of Villa Park.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:29:29 Thank you. Ms. Miles?
Crystal Miles: 00:29:31 In walking the streets, I asked that question to a lot of the residents and some of the answers I got were traffic around the schools, some of the streets that needed to be repaired and then our budget, making sure we live within our means. Those are the three top challenges that I feel at least from interacting with the residents. How to address those, I think it requires some proactive and reactive balancing between recognizing what is top most priority versus something that maybe we can extend the life of. I think it’s a balancing act. I think you have to be able to compromise and work within your means and your budget and get the community involved and see how you can solve problems.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:30:15 Thank you. All right Mayor Collacott, you’re up first for the next question. City Council recently passed a law that says you cannot rent your guesthouse out if you don’t live in the main house. Do you think a person should be able to rent their property for residential purposes to whomever they want?
Bob Collacott: 00:30:33 Yes, 30 days or longer. The ordinance that we adopted was that we did not allow short term rentals for periods 30 days or less. The short term rentals, there’s really no difference between a short term rental and a motel. Most of us bought our homes and our residences in Villa Park to have neighbors next door, not to have a motel next door and the feedback that we’ve gotten since we adopted that ordinance has been overwhelmingly positive from the residents.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:31:05 Ms. Miles, you’re second.
Crystal Miles: 00:31:07 Would you please repeat the question?
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:31:07 Yes. The City Council recently passed a law that says you cannot rent your guesthouse out if you don’t live in the main house. Do you think a person should be able to rent their property for residential purposes to whomever they want?
Crystal Miles: 00:31:23 You know, I don’t like to put restrictions on homeowners because then we start broaching on private property rights. We aren’t a homeowners, we don’t have a homeowner’s association. However, our community is so unique and special. I think I would like to look at each case individually as well as recognize our community is pretty unique and people don’t like change. I do not think that short term rentals should be allowed. No. The answer’s no.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:31:56 Mr. Zimmerman?
Chad Zimmerman: 00:31:57 Sure. Thanks. I agree, short term rentals don’t fit with my view of the hidden jewel and the feel of our community. I would encourage homeowners to live in our city and foster a stronger sense of community that we all love. However, I do not think that the City Council should create laws to force its citizens into behaviors, and I would prefer to work on alternative solutions rather than restricting what rights they have to rent or not rent in their own home.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:32:27 Councilwoman Fascenelli?
Diana Fascenelli: 00:32:29 The ordinance that was passed did not have to do with short term rentals. The ordinance that was passed was if you had two homes, you had your normal home and a granny flat in the back, you had to live in one of the properties. You could not rent both properties. You could not retire, move out of the area and rent both properties. You had to live in one of the properties. If you wanted to rent the back house to a mother in law or just a regular renter, it had nothing to do with short term rentals. We do have other ordinances that refer to short term rentals but that particular ordinance was not that.
Diana Fascenelli: 00:33:04 With that, I strongly disagree with that ordinance. We have large properties when we retire, we may not want to live in 5,000 square feet of home. We may want to rent both properties. This is called investment income, and many of us have second and third homes and we respect who we rent to, and we want to keep our property values up and this is an ordinance that I strongly disagree with when we purchased our homes here.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:33:32 Okay, thank you very much. You’re up for the next question though, first, and we’re getting a lot of cards about infrastructure. I’m starting to see there may be some interest in that, so let’s talk infrastructure. Do you believe Villa Park adequately maintains our infrastructure? How would you increase, decrease, keep the spending level the same? They want to talk about surfacing streets, resurfacing streets, timing on that as well. Do you believe that we adequately maintain the infrastructure here?
Diana Fascenelli: 00:34:01 Yes, I do think we adequately maintain the infrastructure here based on the dollar amounts that we have to spend. We have the streets here, we just did an annual reevaluation of our streets. The average street here in Villa Park has a rating of between 81 and 82. There are cities out there, their average is 60 and 70. 80 is considered good. We do have one street that’s 69. We have one street that’s 72, but the majority is in the 80s.
Diana Fascenelli: 00:34:35 How do we continue to maintain that? We do maintenance on it, and we do it every year. We don’t do it $1 million a year. We do it at $100,000 a year, which is what we’ve continued to do and I would say that we should continue to do it that way.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:34:49 Mr. Zimmerman?
Chad Zimmerman: 00:34:50 Thank you. My opinion on this is going to be based on my experience wandering around town and talking to people about it and looking at our streets. I have had a chance to look at the budget and I was surprised to see that we have a pretty extensive budget that’s allocated for this, that actually including the gas taxes, it comes up to $4.2 million to cover street repairs. It seems like that’s an adequate number that we should be able to take care of that aspect of Villa Park sufficiently, so I would hope that we would stay within those means and that we would use that money wisely.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:35:25 Okay. Mayor Collacott?
Bob Collacott: 00:35:28 Our infrastructure includes streets, storm drains and sewers and these are our most important assets at the city. Every resident in Villa Park, not just most residents, deserve well maintained streets to be free of flood hazards and to have reliable sewers that do not back into their homes. Currently, these assets receive attention when they have deteriorated or fail and little preventive maintenance is provided. This is the most cost extravagant alternative to manage these assets.
Bob Collacott: 00:35:55 Working with the Infrastructure Management Advisory Committee, we are developing asset management plans for infrastructure, and the first of these, the pavement management plan, will incorporate preventive maintenance maintenance measures and ongoing repair program to significantly reduce our maintenance costs and improve the condition of the streets. Similar plans will be developed for sewers and storm drains. Finally, three of our school campuses and a number of our residents are in a FEMA designated flood zone. We now work with the Orange Unified School District to lobby the Orange County flood control district for a project to reduce or eliminate these flood hazards.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:36:29 Ms. Miles?
Crystal Miles: 00:36:32 Would you repeat the question one more time? I was supposed to be third.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:36:34 I know. I apologize. I already made a mistake. The evening’s young. They’re talking about infrastructure. Do you believe Villa Park adequately maintains our infrastructure and if you were elected, would you increase, decrease or keep it the same?
Crystal Miles: 00:36:48 Thank you. I do believe that Villa Park adequately maintains our infrastructure as denoted by Councilwoman Fascenelli’s index on the streets. I think some streets could use a little extra care, but you know, we have a very small budget. We have to work within our means. I think that using some of the committees that we have would help us designate which streets need more, which need less, as Mr. Zimmerman pointed out that we do have allocated funds for this exact reason and to answer, I don’t think I would change unless we had a significant event, and again, being proactive versus reactive. That’s where the balancing act has to come in, being able to discern where you apply the funds.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:37:34 Thank you. Well, you’re going to be up first now. Sorry about that.
Crystal Miles: 00:37:36 Oh okay.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:37:37 We’re going to stay on infrastructure because it seems to be such a popular subject here. There seems to be concern about the timing of resurfacing streets, lots of construction around some of the major streets apparently. What are your viewpoints regarding the timing of when streets should be resurfaced?
Crystal Miles: 00:37:57 I would have to refer to our city staff and our city manager and ask for advisement on that. My understanding of City Council is they’re a policymaking governing body, not a policy enforcing and recognizing that the city staff, the city manager brings a plethora of knowledge, also with the city staff like our maintenance crew, I would have to rely on them to be able to give us information as far as when streets were ready or not. Obviously, this index that tells us the health of our streets and being that the average is around an 80, I believe and do some comparable ratios with some of the cities that we have like Orange or Anaheim Hills and see how we compare with them.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:38:47 Okay. Councilwoman Fascenelli, you’re up next. Timing of when streets should be resurfaced.
Diana Fascenelli: 00:38:54 The timing has to do not just with us resurfacing it but it has to do with maybe what Serrano Water has to do with the pipes under the ground, what the cable companies have to do and we have to actually work with them. Now, what’s interesting is probably what you guys don’t know is if we do have a telecom company come out here or Southern California Gas or Edison, they don’t tell us when they’re coming. They just come in and they say, “Next week, we’re going to be there.” We can’t actually rip up the streets when you have the telecom company over there ripping up the streets, which I think all of you observed right now.
Diana Fascenelli: 00:39:29 In addition, if we know that we’re going to be resurfacing the streets, we do go to Serrano Water. We do say, “Hey, is there any issues that you need to take care of on the streets?”, and if there is, they need to take care of it before we put them on. That led us now into the school district timing where the kids went back to school and we had a little bit of a traffic jam right now trying to resurface the streets. In addition, weather has a lot to do with it. Thank you.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:39:57 Mayor Collacott?
Bob Collacott: 00:39:59 Yeah, I agree that we do coordinate with both the water company as well as our own server maintenance projects on our street resurfacing projects. I would like to clarify one thing about our pavement condition index. Yes, the average is about 83% but that isn’t much solace for a resident who has a street in front of them that’s in poor or fair condition. We need to find a way to get all of our streets in all of our neighborhoods in good condition. Currently, our street maintenance is a bit haphazard. Typically what we’re doing is we’re repairing the most dilapidated streets. We’re not paying really any attention to preventive maintenance. I think we need to start focusing on developing plans to focus on preventive maintenance and ongoing maintenance so that we can reduce the large expenditures for major repairs.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:40:55 Mr. Zimmerman?
Chad Zimmerman: 00:40:56 The question is what do I think about the timing?
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:40:59 Yeah, timing of when streets should be resurfaced? You got an opinion on that?
Chad Zimmerman: 00:41:03 Sure. I mean, I think the streets should be resurfaced when they need to be and that we, it seems pretty straightforward. I know that city has worked on a plan and they have a plan that they’ve actually put together for many, many years. It’s not nothing new that we’re just suddenly realizing we have to do something about the streets. It’s been around a long time and we count on the city to go out. We have a city engineer, people that they go through and review those things. I think we’ve also had citizens come and say, “Hey, that’s not happening fast enough.”, and there might be something we need to do speed up certain areas that aren’t getting the attention they desire. I think I’m definitely open to listening to those residents who have opinions on it to make sure that we address everybody. That’s my opinion.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:41:43 Thank you. You’re first up for the next question. Let’s do a couple non controversial ones. Do you support firework sales in Villa Park?
Chad Zimmerman: 00:41:50 You said the non controversial ones, okay. Yes, I support safe and sane fireworks in Villa Park. The revenue generated by those sales goes directly back into our community through the community organizations that run those. Moreover, safe and sane fireworks provide an alternative to purchasing illegal fireworks that wouldn’t ordinarily be there, so absolutely safe and sane fireworks are a better way of promoting Fourth of July rather than having you go to the van over in Orange and buying the illegal ones and causing more problems.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:42:28 Mayor, you’re next.
Bob Collacott: 00:42:30 The residents have voted to allow the sale of safe and sane fireworks and I will continue to support this decision.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:42:37 Councilwoman Fascenelli?
Diana Fascenelli: 00:42:38 Absolutely. As being one of the council members who was in this room until two o’clock in the morning on several occasions, the voters did speak overwhelmingly and I support the sales of fireworks.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:42:53 Ms. Miles?
Crystal Miles: 00:42:53 I concur with all three.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:42:55 Well then let’s just stick with the non controversial subjects, and as Villa Park is home to four schools, what was your position on the school bond measure? We’re going to start with Mayor on this one.
Bob Collacott: 00:43:09 I had some reservations about the school bond because I’ve had long standing concerns about the school district and their maintenance of the buildings. I think that should have been addressed first before the school bond, but as it has been approved by the voters, I’ve supported the project and worked over the past year with the city manager and the school district to ensure that the buildings that are put in are safe and don’t create impacts on our city including traffic issues and also identified that the original plan was to put classrooms in the basement in a flood hazard zone.
Bob Collacott: 00:43:51 I pointed that out and the school district went back and redesigned so that they would not imperil our students.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:43:58 Ms. Miles, you’re next.
Crystal Miles: 00:43:59 I 100% supported the school bond. As a scientist, tumor immunologist, science and math is of the utmost importance, so I 100% agree.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:44:09 Mr. Zimmerman?
Chad Zimmerman: 00:44:10 I also support bond. I want to make sure that it’s spent wisely, and as it turns out, the people that got the bond passed also want to see that money spent wisely. It is in their best interest, having gotten the bond passed to make sure that as that money gets spent, it is spent exactly how it was said to be spent and it is spent very carefully and efficiently. They’re hoping that when the residents of all of the areas around the school see the impact of the money, that it is well spent, and that it encouraged us to maybe spend more later and make sure that the schools are high priority and that they are given the money they need to stay with the times.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:44:49 Councilman Fascenelli?
Diana Fascenelli: 00:44:52 I did not support Measure K, but then I did support Measure S because I came to the realization that it was time and it had to get done and the past had to be forgotten, and whatever everyone’s feelings about how the school was maintained, that money wasn’t put in it properly, not properly, either way, we had buildings now that needed to be replaced. As that, I got myself appointed to the Measure S Oversight Committee. I am now chairman of that and I monitor what gets spent and there are meetings monthly, and I’m very satisfied with how the bond money is being spent.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:45:35 All right, you’re first up for the next question. Let’s stay on schools, a little different twist on this one. Safe public parking is an issue near our schools. Do you feel the parking restrictions on Feather Hill and Dodson are fair should the restrictions be modified? Councilwoman, you’re first.
Diana Fascenelli: 00:45:52 I do not believe that the parking restrictions are fair on Feather Hill and Dodson. I do not believe in having private parking in a residential district. If you’re living in a homeowner’s association, you’re living in a private gated community, I don’t have any problem with that, but the public should be able to park on our streets, and whether that is a runner who wants to park on the street and run around the neighborhood or whether it be a mother dropping their children off to go to school.
Diana Fascenelli: 00:46:21 When we do purchase our homes around a school, you know that there’s going to be traffic in the morning and there’s going to be traffic in the afternoon. Thank you.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:46:31 Mr. Zimmerman?
Chad Zimmerman: 00:46:31 Sorry, can you clarify? You said how do I feel about it?
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:46:34 It says do you feel the parking restrictions on Feather Hill and Dodson are fair? Should the restrictions be modified?
Chad Zimmerman: 00:46:43 I see, so in terms of fair, I think I would say no. I would say that the schools were there first and that limiting the parking after the fact doesn’t seem exactly fair. I would say that the situation there has changed over time, that we have more people out of the area that are coming in and parking there, so there has to be some allowance to make sure that it doesn’t become overwhelming, but maybe that restricting an entirely wasn’t the best way to go.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:47:16 Ms. Miles?
Crystal Miles: 00:47:18 I’m kind of a mix between my two fellow candidates. I met a lot of people on Dodson and Feather Hill and one of the things that they noted is that they have to plan their entire morning or afternoon based on the traffic schedules of the school. Again, I can agree and say, “Well, you bought by a school.”, but also I think we need to be sensitive to the fact that some of the needs of these residents have changed as well. Do I think it’s fair? Under the circumstances I don’t live there, I chose not to live by a school. However they did. I do believe something needs to be done, something that we can come to the table and compromise on. I would like to look at that should I be elected.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:48:07 Mayor?
Bob Collacott: 00:48:08 I’d like to point out that Councilwoman Fascenelli did vote for parking by permit only on Fernando, which is within a few feet of her house. Most streets around our schools are limited by permit parking only, virtually all the schools around Villa Park. Also if you look directly south in McPherson School, City of Orange has made parking by permit only around the entire facility. My concern is not with the inconvenience. That’s a secondary concern. My concern is that what we have at Feather, around Serrano Elementary is a very dangerous mix of students and parents that are anxious to get in and out of the school in a very narrow street.
Bob Collacott: 00:48:50 Just last week, we had a head on collision where four students were injured. There are many near misses down in that area and we need, the Orange Unified School District needs to provide some parking and some safe on campus drop off zone so that students can be dropped off and picked up safely.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:49:10 Okay. Ms. Miles, you’re first for the next question. All right. This is always a popular one during political season. What are your thoughts on political signs and the current sign ordinance in the city?
Crystal Miles: 00:49:25 You know, everyone has the right to be able to, freedom of expression and what I’ve noticed being a candidate, this sign thing has gotten out of control. When I say it’s gotten out of control, I don’t mean by the number of signs. I am referring to my opinion of the vitriol, the nastiness that has occurred due to signs, the hearsay about the signs. Did they get lost? Did they get stolen? Perhaps just a gardener might have moved it. Perhaps you asked a friend to go help you and place it and they didn’t actually place it in the proper location.
Crystal Miles: 00:50:05 Yet I believe that there is enough history and negative energy that it will be misconstrued. I would like to propose, if I have two seconds, I would like to see an end to this divisiveness and this separation of the City Council and be able to say, “You know what, I welcome my fellow candidates to please place the sign on my lawn. Let’s show the community that we actually are going to put away all this. Let’s go forward. Please put a sign on my lawn for all of you.”
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:50:37 Thank you. Councilwoman Fascenelli?
Diana Fascenelli: 00:50:42 I believe everyone has a right to put a sign in their yard, whether it says you go to serve Mater Dei or whether you want to run for council. It’s called free speech. I also do think though, that we can shorten the time period for political signs and I also would believe in having a central location that the candidates could just agree on, whether it be a corner, somebody’s house or corner of the city where we just say, “Let’s put our signs there where everybody can see them.”, and work together with doing that. I think it’s time to look at the sign ordinance again.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:51:16 Mayor Collacott?
Bob Collacott: 00:51:18 I think the sign ordinance that we have is good. It works. Every candidate must ask permission, each candidate must ask permission to put a sign on somebody’s property. That gets us candidates out and talking to people. That wasn’t always the case. In fact in 2012, I believe nobody really filed for City Council but it gets us out talking to our residents and finding out what they want and what their concerns are. It also communicates to the other candidates that I’m out, they’re out and that you need to get out and meet with the the residents.
Bob Collacott: 00:51:58 Now, they’re only up for a 45 day period. Last time when I ran, I removed mine by seven or eight o’clock in the morning the day after the election. That’s my intent this time too so they’re only up for a short time. Thank you.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:52:12 Thank you. Mr. Zimmerman?
Chad Zimmerman: 00:52:14 I think there are too many signs out there. I don’t like the way it looks in our city. It doesn’t look great to me. I got really, this is my first time ever running for it. Obviously, I’m not a politician. I got really excited about putting signs out and then I went out and I saw all the signs out there and it just made me not want to put a single one out. I was really unhappy with the with the way it made our city look. It doesn’t feel like Villa Park very much to me with all the signs out there.
Chad Zimmerman: 00:52:37 However, then I got to place signs in neighbors, in my friends’ yards and people that wanted to genuinely support me and I thought, “Oh, this is perfect. They can see see where my signs are. Here are the people that support me.” I would love not to have as many signs out there. If there were a restriction on the number, that would be great. I do. like the idea of representing who’s running and getting the word out that politics can be important and can be fun, but it doesn’t make our city look great. I’d rather have a restriction on it.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:53:12 Thank you. You’re up first for the next question.
Chad Zimmerman: 00:53:14 Okay.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:53:16 Your town center, what do you think about it? Is it healthy? Successful? If not, what would you do to change it?
Chad Zimmerman: 00:53:25 Well, so I think our city town center is pretty healthy. I think that there are certainly things that the owners of the businesses can do. I don’t think that’s something that City Council should be weighing in on and trying to control about our town center very much. I think that it’s capitalism. People have to decide how they’re going to run their business. They’re going to have to promote their businesses. They’re going to have to encourage people to come in and make this something that’s driven by the owners and the proprietors.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:53:54 Mayor Collacott?
Bob Collacott: 00:53:56 I like our town center. I’ve been here for 37 years and I’ve seen the evolution of our town center somewhat. I’m very pleased to see that the merchants got together and paved the parking lot. It makes it look much better. The town center is a private enterprise or it’s private property. They decide who they rent to and how they maintain it within certain bounds issued by the city, but the challenge that they have is that there are I think, 11 different property owners within the town center so it’s very difficult to get them together to try to think through a more cohesive plan for the town center or any going forward, but hopefully, the paving is a good first step and I’d like to commend Billy Skeffington for opening up the post and creating a meeting place in our city. Thank you.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:54:55 Councilwoman?
Diana Fascenelli: 00:54:57 The town center does have 11 different owners and it’s not the city’s place to tell them what to do with their shop, what sign to put up within the restrictions of our ordinances. They have been in business here, we’ve got the same owners, except for one, for almost 50 years. The places are always rented. We do speak with them and their response is, “It’s my property. I’m making money. I don’t need your assistance. Thank you.” I have to respect that. If we do have issues, we go to them, but we have ordinances and we have rules and so far, quite frankly, it’s done pretty well. We got a great Ralphs. It’s one of the best Ralphs that Kroger. Their sales are good. We have a Dunkin’ Donuts. Some of you may not like it, but guess what? It looks really nice at the corner. We don’t need to poke in their business.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:55:48 Ms. Miles?
Crystal Miles: 00:55:49 I like our town center. It’s a gathering spot for our community for some of our events, a taste of Villa Park from the Little League, our Halloween Fest. I agree, the City Council should not be telling the merchant, the business owners how to run but I also recognize that there are city ordinances and codes that help govern the town center.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:56:13 Mayor Collacott, you’re first on this. Do you see an assessment for the burying of power poles in the near future?
Bob Collacott: 00:56:22 No, I don’t. We tried to do a study just to evaluate the cost of doing, looking into that and that got buried in politics and I don’t see anybody wanting to pick that up and evaluate it further, although since I moved to Villa Park in 1981, virtually the first complaints I started to hear from residents was how unsightly the power poles were or the utility poles were. Continue to hear that but it’s a difficult and expensive proposition going forward, although other cities such as Newport Beach and Laguna Beach are successfully implementing that type of project.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:57:03 Ms. Miles?
Crystal Miles: 00:57:05 I agree that having all our power poles can look unsightly. We’re a small city with a small budget, we can’t afford it and I don’t think passing on the cost to the residents just to bury some power poles. I’ve spoken to some people who said, “You know what, if it’s going to cost that much, leave them.” I go inside. I don’t see many ways.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:57:28 Mr. Zimmerman?
Chad Zimmerman: 00:57:31 The question is do I see an assessment in the future? No. Answer’s pretty simple, but I’ll say that the number that I heard when I was talking to residents and to past council people about this issue is that it would cost $1,000 per foot to bury a power pole underground. That seems prohibitive. I think if you’ve got 100 feet along your property or 140 feet, that you’re into the hundreds of thousands of dollars and that most of our residents aren’t interested in paying for that.
Chad Zimmerman: 00:58:01 If the city paid for it, and then we had to tax them on it, that seems unfair to all residents. I would say I don’t see that in our future because it’s cost prohibitive.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:58:11 Councilwoman Fascenelli?
Diana Fascenelli: 00:58:12 I do not see an assessment for this item. I actually don’t see an assessment, quite frankly, for anything. It’s certainly not my future while I live here, but in addition, we do have people who have buried their own power poles. They have moved into the city. They have remodeled their home. They have done it themselves, and we have a lot of people so that is an option, but we don’t need to bear the burden of the other residents who can’t afford that with an assessment. It’s not something I would support and quite frankly, I would strongly go against it.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:58:45 Okay, you’re first up for the next question. Villa Park is known as a volunteer city. Do you volunteer with any school or community organizations that benefit the city?
Diana Fascenelli: 00:58:56 Yes. I volunteer for the foundation, I volunteer for Villa Park High School now that I have children here. I volunteer as president of the National Charity League, the Orange Villa Park chapter. I volunteer as a board member for the National League of Young Men, the Villa Park chapter also I volunteer to help the homeless and I volunteer to help the elderly.
Carolyn Cavecche: 00:59:28 Thank you. Mr. Zimmerman?
Chad Zimmerman: 00:59:30 Good question. As a prolific volunteer, I’m happy to answer the question but I started volunteering many years ago. I have time in my schedule that I have dedicated to volunteering. I volunteered to help with our kids when they were in school, and then that transitioned into working with the Cub Scouts. I was Cub Master for many years, which involved being able to stand up in front of the kids and talk to them about leadership and the important qualities that they needed to embody. I also was chief for my daughter’s Indian Princess tribe. I joined Villa Park Rotary, which is a fantastic community service organization helping out in measurable ways around the city. I was blessed to be President of that last year. Now I’m involved in the vocational chair for that avenue of service, which mostly involves providing money to teachers for special projects or supplies that they need, so this is another volunteer position obviously that I’m looking to go for. That’s where I lie.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:00:32 Thank you. Ms. Miles?
Crystal Miles: 01:00:33 I was just going to say I’m volunteering for this. I’ve been involved with Villa Park Little League. That’s how I first got my volunteer job with respect to the city, worked in many positions there. I love it, still on the board, co-player agent as well as fundraising. If you’ve been to the Taste of Villa Park, I hope you did. That was one of my chairs as well as helping with Halloween Fest, member of the Community Services Foundation. I serve as the governance chair. Also, I’m on a steering committee in hopes that we can establish and build a community center here.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:01:19 Okay. Mr. Collacott?
Bob Collacott: 01:01:19 Virtually all my time is volunteering. I currently volunteer to take care of my 85 year old mother and my disabled sister and also assist my next door neighbor. I care for her sister, who’s been bedridden since 1982, which involves all kinds of volunteer assistance, but over the 37 years I’ve been a resident here, I volunteered to read children’s literature for 30 minutes every Friday at the first and second grade classes at Villa Park Elementary. I presented high school career days on environmental science career opportunities. I was a Cub Scout Webelo Den Leader and I started my den with three Cub Scouts, ended with 10 and all earned the Arrow Flight.
Bob Collacott: 01:01:57 I manage and coach at Villa Park Little League, volunteered at almost every practice through majors. I was a member of the Villa Park High School Baseball Booster Club Board of Directors and managed field and facility maintenance for an entire year, and of course, since 2014, I’ve been on City Council. I spend a lot of time following volunteering.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:02:15 Thank you. Ms. Miles, you’re up next for the first question. This question comes and they say, “Our family, like a lot of families, enjoy walking the streets of Villa Park. Many of the streets that we walk do not have sidewalks. What is your viewpoint on this? Would you do anything to put in sidewalks?”
Crystal Miles: 01:02:34 No, I would not. We moved here, my family and I, we like the large lot size. We like the community feel but also the fact that we are our own independent hidden jewel and not having street sidewalks, that’s part of our charm. That’s part of why people moved here, so no, I would not.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:02:59 Councilwoman?
Diana Fascenelli: 01:03:01 No, I don’t support building sidewalks in the city. That is part of our charm. I do agree with Crystal here. That’s why we moved here. There’s no streetlights. We have a rural community. There are some areas near the schools that do have some sidewalks but part of living here is that we have city but we have rural, so we get the best of both worlds, so I would not support any assessment. I also wouldn’t support the city paying for any of that being put in.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:03:33 Mayor Collacott?
Bob Collacott: 01:03:34 When Villa Park was founded in 1962, that was part of the deal. They wanted to maintain a semi-rural atmosphere so they didn’t want any streetlights. They didn’t want any sidewalks, except as Councilwoman Fascenelli pointed out near our schools. It is part of the character of Villa Park in that we not have streetlights and sidewalks, but also this keeps our costs low. We have a very limited budget and we don’t have money to construct sidewalks. To do so, we’d have to do a special assessment and nobody would agree to a special assessment for sidewalks, at least I don’t believe so.
Bob Collacott: 01:04:12 Also, there’s a maintenance cost to keeping up sidewalks and an insurance liability to maintaining street sidewalks. With our limited budget, we need to curtail our costs, and since they’re out of character, I don’t see it happening.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:04:30 Mr. Zimmerman?
Chad Zimmerman: 01:04:31 Could you repeat the question, just to make sure I’m answering the right thing?
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:04:33 Sidewalks, you don’t have a lot of them I guess here in Villa Park. I knew that actually. What’s your viewpoint on this? Would you do anything to put them in?
Chad Zimmerman: 01:04:44 Okay, so it’s just that. Well, I was thinking, I was tempted to just agree with everything everybody else has said but I will add that while sidewalks are only in a limited place around the city, I do like the trails that we have and we have certainly had some projects to enhance our trails. I was looking at one of the budget items was a Loma connector between Valley and Loma? We can look it up and I can tell you exactly, but I would love to see. We do walk around the city a lot and I would love to see certain areas where we have trails that aren’t connecting maybe pieced together or have some places tied so that if you’re walking around a dangerous turn, maybe there’s a better way of handling that that we can put something on that turn such that it’s safe for people to walk along a trail. It doesn’t have to be a sidewalk. I think you’re right. Sidewalks look unsightly but trails certainly can be a good way of enhancing the walking ability around our city.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:05:43 Okay, you’re first up for the next question. What can be done to increase the law enforcement police patrol presence to help maintain the low crime rate in Villa Park?
Chad Zimmerman: 01:05:53 What can be done to increase the law enforcement? We have a budget, a fixed budget with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. I’m not intimately familiar with that budget and everything that entails but I understand that it’s set for certain activities. My experience with this is working with the city directly around the fireworks time to make sure that we had an additional enforcement officer available to make sure that we were covering all illegal activities, to look for extra stuff that was happening at that time. I don’t know that we can enhance additional patrols without incurring additional cost but I do know that there are alternatives like the PSR car, the Professional Services Responder car being out and about in our neighborhood, some great things that have already been done that we could see about how to make some of these things more effective.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:06:48 Mayor Collacott?
Bob Collacott: 01:06:50 This was an issue that was pressed on me when I was running for council last time, and so I put together the Law Enforcement Advisory Committee. That includes six members of our community who are resident law enforcement professionals and they work with Neighborhood Watch and the Sheriff Department to keep our crime rate low and they’ve been effective. The crime rate in Villa Park has declined every year since it was formed in 2015, even in the face of the early release from prison program, which has resulted in crime going up everywhere else. In fact, only Villa Park, and I believe Yorba Linda are the only cities that have seen reductions in our crime over that period.
Bob Collacott: 01:07:32 One thing we might look at doing, we actually have one deputy 21/7. We don’t really have coverage during shift change, so maybe we should be looking at talking with the Orange Unified School District and seeing if we can get some shared costs for the law enforcement professional that we provide to them so that we can increase our coverage from around the city.
Diana Fascenelli: 01:08:01 The Sheriff contract takes up 50% of our budget. It’s our highest cost we have in the city. That is certainly our priority, and we’re looking at $1.6 million in case anybody wants to know how much that is. It was supposed to be higher because it goes up every year. We were able to negotiate that contract down this year from 13% down to 7%, but we expect another increase next year. How do we get more law enforcement presence? We have to pay for it.
Diana Fascenelli: 01:08:38 We have to be vigilant. We have to lock our doors. We need to lock our car doors. We need to put an alarm on our house, and if you see something that looks odd, you call the Sheriff and they come. We have coverage 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Anytime you call the Sheriff, they will come here, not with one person. They will come with two. They will come with three and we could have a crime at my house. I can have a crime at Ms. Miles’ house and they will come.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:09:09 Ms. Miles, you’re up.
Crystal Miles: 01:09:10 Would you please repeat the question?
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:09:12 Yeah, what can be done to increase the law enforcement police patrol presence to help maintain the low crime rate in Villa Park?
Crystal Miles: 01:09:21 I agree. If you want to increase the police presence, you’re going to have to pay for that. That being said, running some comparable ratios, my understanding is that when we look at our city and the budget that we have, which I calculated at 46%, when we look at that budget and we look at the comparable ratio with another city, we are pretty comparable even though some other cities are much larger. They also have a larger budget and they also have a higher expense. I don’t know that we actually need to increase our Sheriff’s presence. We’re very happy with the ones that we have, and again, when I look at the comparable ratios, I think we’re right on track.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:10:03 Great. Mayor Collacott, you’re up first for this and I’m going to kind of expand this question. It was talking specifically about city committees, which ones do you want to lead and why, but I’m going to expand that to regional committees that Villa Park represents as well too. What would your interests be with that?
Bob Collacott: 01:10:18 My primary interest would be in supporting or participating in the Infrastructure Management Advisory Committee. This is a committee of resident engineers, very high level resident engineers that work with our city manager and our city engineer to improve the cost effectiveness of management of our infrastructure, but they also are embarking on developing asset management plans for each of our categories of infrastructure. Currently, we’re going to be starting on working on the streets and again right now, we were very reactive in how we maintain our infrastructure. When it falls apart, we fix it, which is the most expensive and extravagant way to manage our infrastructure.
Bob Collacott: 01:11:03 If we get into preventive maintenance, we can reduce our costs and actually end up with better streets, better sewers and better storm drains.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:11:11 Ms. Miles, city committees you’d like to lead and why and regional committees representing Villa Park out in the county.
Crystal Miles: 01:11:18 I’d like to do Orange County Mosquito and Vector Control, partly because when I was an undergrad, I worked there and it’s kind of my gig. Then as far as our city committees, I’m really interested in LEAC and making sure that we maintain the high level of safety and low crime rate that we have.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:11:38 Okay. Mr. Zimmerman?
Chad Zimmerman: 01:11:41 I’d be comfortable working with the City and Schools Advisory Board or the Community Development Committee. I think I’d be most interested in working on the Budget and Finance Committee. I think that I could provide input on capital improvement projects and value in reviewing the city’s investment strategy. I know there’s also the city investment, the Investment Advisory Committee and I’ve had long discussions with Bill Underwood there about the role there and I think it’s fantastic that we’re taking an interest in our reserves and how we can invest that money to make the dollars that we have in the city extend and work further and have more power for us.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:12:20 Councilwoman?
Diana Fascenelli: 01:12:21 The School Advisory Committee and the Budget and Finance are the two that I favor most here but as far as regional boards go, there’s a new Homeless Commission Advocacy Board that has been now formed for North County and I look forward to serving on that.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:12:39 Great. You’re up next for the first question. What do you feel is the appropriate posture for the city to take with OUSD and what role would you personally take to improve the interactions with the district, the four schools within our limits and the parents, including those who are not residents of Villa Park? Those would be Orange residents.
Diana Fascenelli: 01:13:02 You people. We are two different bodies. Orange Unified School District is its own quasi government body. We are a city. The two are completely separate. They do not tell us what to do. We don’t tell them what to do, but guess what? We work together and to have a city that you want people to move into, you have to have schools and we have four wonderful schools that have been here. We have a great relationship with OUSD. They talk to us. We work together with them. I don’t care where those children come from. They can come from Garden Grove, which some of them do because those are our boundaries. They deserve an education. They come to the city. They shop at our Ralphs and we welcome them because without good schools, no one is going to pay the price of our homes. We need the schools here and we work well with them.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:14:00 Mr. Zimmerman?
Chad Zimmerman: 01:14:02 Our posture with the OUSD, I would say that we should have a healthy partnership, trust and respect with them that allows us to negotiate, to talk to them about issues that we have such that if we have problems with a development or they have problems with stuff in the city that we can talk about those things and try to resolve them amicably. I would love to see that handled in a respectful and convivial manner. I think the Orange residents that are coming into our area should be treated with respect. I think that they have chosen our school because our schools are doing very well and that we want to welcome individuals. They’re all human beings, to come in and participate in our schools and to benefit from a healthy environment that’s kind to everybody.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:14:56 Ms. Miles?
Crystal Miles: 01:14:58 I concur with both the candidates. Our posture with the OUSD. We have, my understanding is, established a healthy partnership. We have four schools within a very small radius. These schools are award winning schools. I think it’s a phenomenal task to have all four schools thriving here and that’s it.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:15:27 Collacott?
Bob Collacott: 01:15:28 Well, I think OUSD is doing a pretty good job. All three of my kids went through OUSD and all three of them graduated college. I had mentioned that I was a Cub Scout den leader and one of my Cub Scouts have graduated. He graduated from UCLA and is now a fighter pilot. Another graduated from USC and is now an officer SEAL, so they must be doing something right. I think what we saw with the Measure S school is a good example of city and OUSD cooperation. We contacted them over a year ago, identified all the different concerns that we had with the facility, including the potential flooding of the basement part of that building and traffic and we work through everything, and I think we’ve got a really good project now that will be a benefit to the city as well as OUSD for many years in the future. Thank you.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:16:26 Great. Thank you. Ms. Miles, you’re next. We’re going to stay on the school theme. It’s got a little twist to it, though. Since Villa Park has no parks, many people walk their dogs on the school field, which is against county regulations. Do the city doggie bags put on school fences encourage this illegal behavior? Should they be removed?
Crystal Miles: 01:16:48 Yes, they encourage the illegal behavior. Yes, they should be removed and here’s why. I’ve been on those Little League fields for the past eight years. I have seen, although well mannered, good natured, beautiful dogs and well mannered, good natured owners lose sight of the fact that dogs get excited. We’ve got little kids, five, six years old that are just there to go and meet up with their team or have a practice and unfortunately, this gynormic dog comes bounding down the track or the field or whatever and can scare a child as well as unfortunately, even though those bags are there, owners aren’t necessarily responsible enough to pick up after their pets.
Crystal Miles: 01:17:33 I’m a dog owner. I’m a dog lover but I do not believe those bags should be there and OUSD has also asked us at Little League to enforce no dogs.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:17:44 Councilwoman Fascenelli?
Diana Fascenelli: 01:17:46 I do think that the bags attached to the OUSD fence, which I’m not quite sure if we ever got permission, I think they just kind of showed you does encourage the dogs on to the OUSD sites. It is illegal to do so. There’s a reason for it. There are dogs who bite. There are dogs who poop all over the place and those doggie bags cost us about $4,000 a year. Now we need them because we offer them as a service so that when you’re walking your dog and you’re along the trail, you can pick up the doggie bag and then throw it in the trash can, and it does have something to do with NPDS or something. I can’t exactly remember the government agency but we do need to be able to pick up our waste but they should be removed from the school fence.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:18:34 Mayor Collacott?
Bob Collacott: 01:18:36 Well, I’ve spoken to many long term residents and since those schools have been developed, for example, Cerro Villa Middle School, people have been walking and running their dogs on the fields. We need to encourage our residents that do use those fields to pick up after their pets. I’ve been down there with my dog and the people down there, mostly older residents, do pick up not only after their own animals but they pick up if they see something else, somebody else might have left, including coyotes.
Bob Collacott: 01:19:09 I have also managed the fields as I mentioned for a year at Villa Park High School. I didn’t see any problems I’ve also spent a lot of time at Little League at Cerro Villa and there were no problems. Also finally, I spoke with our last Superintendent of OUSD, Mike Christensen and also our current superintendent, and they were both supportive and the bags went up with their support.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:19:41 Great. Mr. Zimmerman?
Chad Zimmerman: 01:19:43 I also support, the parks in Villa Park really are the schools. They’re the biggest open areas for dogs to go run and play. I’ve been over there with dogs running and I have never seen a single problem with dogs, just my experience. That’s not proof of it being so all the time, but I have seen the residents who take the dogs over there be very respectful. As Bob, as Mayor Collacott points out, they will often pick up stuff that kids have left behind, the coyotes will have left behind. They’re very responsible and it’s a great way for our residents to be out. I’ve seen groups of people out there. They’ll go out and talk together and their dogs are playing together. It’s great social interaction for the dogs. I think it’s actually beneficial.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:20:31 Great, thank you. All right, you’re up first for the next one.
Chad Zimmerman: 01:20:35 Okay.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:20:35 All right. We’re getting a lot of questions about resident advisory committees put forward in a lot of different ways. Give us your opinion on resident advisory committees to the City Council. Are you in support of them? If not, how would you replace them?
Chad Zimmerman: 01:20:54 I think our resident advisory committees are a fantastic way of involving our citizens in the governing process. This is a perfect way to get community involvement in with the City Council. You have people that are experts in areas that the City Councilors don’t have expertise in, and it provides a really good overlap of experience and then government trying to work together. I’ve seen the other side of this being that we have to pay for each of those advisory committees to take notes to support them. I know that Investment Advisory Committee meets quarterly. They’ve reduced their meetings. They’re actually talking about ways that they can look to reduce the impact of those meetings, presenting an agenda maybe a week ahead of time, allowing them to make the meetings a little bit faster. There are ways that our committees can be streamlined and that we can reduce the costs but they’re a fantastic way for the community to get involved.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:21:58 Thank you. Mayor Collacott, you’re up.
Bob Collacott: 01:22:00 I agree completely with Chad. The resident advisory committees provide an opportunity to get people involved in the city. One thing that this has done is it helps us get good people involved in our city so that they can then move into City Council at some point in time. Our Mayor Pro Tem Rossini is a veteran of the Law Enforcement Advisory Committee. Bill, Councilman Nelson is a resident of the Investment Advisory Committee and they’ve used that as a way or got familiar with the city and then moved in. We are short on cash in the city but we are rich in skilled people and knowledgeable people and we’re involving the top people, top engineers, top investment advisors, top engineers that are residents that want to make their city better. I think that’s the best thing we could hope for.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:22:58 Councilwoman?
Diana Fascenelli: 01:22:59 I believe in these type of committees but not in excess. I think currently, we have 11 committees. I would say that seven of them haven’t met in the last several months. It does take a lot of staff time to perform and put an agenda out, then to be counseled. The city manager has to attend those meetings, has to record those meetings, has to upload those minutes, and we don’t have the staff to actually have staff go to all these meetings. Yes, I support them but I support them in a limited number.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:23:34 Ms. Miles?
Crystal Miles: 01:23:35 I too support the resident advisory committees. The people who serve on those, they’re a resource, they have the energy, the passion, the experience, the knowledge, I think that’s invaluable. As someone who has been president of school boards and whatnot, when somebody wants to volunteer, you accept it, but I also agree that maybe some of the committees we could consolidate a little bit so that we don’t have as many or are stressing out our city staff.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:24:02 Okay, thank you. Mayor Collacott, you’re next on this one and I don’t quite understand this, so maybe you’re all going to be able to explain this one to me because this is a new one. Who should maintain Sycamore Street? Orange or Villa Park?
Bob Collacott: 01:24:17 Oh gosh. I believe the city limits go right down the center of it and my understanding is I believe Santiago and Wanda are half maintained by Villa Park and Orange. I guess since we have such limited city staff, we have our city engineers around, there’s a consultant and he’s available two six hour shifts a week to the extent that we can rely on the City of Orange to help guide when and what type of maintenance is conducted on those streets like Sycamore, we should work cooperatively with the City of Orange.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:24:59 Ms. Miles?
Crystal Miles: 01:25:00 I agree. I think that we’re getting tit for tat and I think we can, not the question but when we start looking at who should really maintain that, I think that in order to foster the partnership with Orange and be a good neighbor, I think we can work out a compromise.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:25:17 Mr. Zimmerman?
Chad Zimmerman: 01:25:19 I’ll be perfectly honest. I didn’t know there was an issue on Sycamores Street.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:25:23 I didn’t either.
Chad Zimmerman: 01:25:27 I can only defer to what people who are more involved with it might say about it until I research the issue.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:25:33 Councilwoman Fascenelli?
Diana Fascenelli: 01:25:35 I don’t think we have a problem with Sycamore Street.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:25:37 Good. All right, you’re up first on this next one. This is a fun question. This is probably my favorite question in the night. If you received a $1 million grant to use for the city any you want it, what would you do with it and why?
Diana Fascenelli: 01:25:54 $1 million?
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:25:55 $1 million doesn’t go as long as we hope, as far as we all think it should but what would you do with it and why?
Diana Fascenelli: 01:26:02 I would put a second story on this building and add some community space.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:26:09 Interesting. Mr. Zimmerman?
Chad Zimmerman: 01:26:15 My first reaction on hearing that I get a bunch of money is how much can I save? How much can I put away into our reserves, and how can we invest that money to make it last for the city the longest that we can. If I had to spend it, actually a community center sounds like a great idea. I’ve seen the proposals put forth by the Community Services Foundation and would love to see that project encouraged.
Chad Zimmerman: 01:26:41 I’ve seen, one of the things that we all do in our homes, we have these fantastic homes in Villa Park that we maintain very well. We make the exterior of them look really great, but we haven’t done quite as great a job around some of the green belts and some of the areas around our city that need beautification. I’d love to put some money into that. One of the great things about investing the money is that then it lasts longer and you can do all of those things.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:27:07 Ms. Miles?
Crystal Miles: 01:27:09 He stole my answer, aside from yes, especially since I’m part of the steering committee for the community center, I would love to be able to further that process along but yeah, I agree. I think that I would like to involve the community. If I had $1 million that was granted to the city, I would love to say, “All right, guys, what should we do?”, and kind of take a poll and see what everyone thinks along with trying to maybe put some away and save as well as replenish some of the funds that could be very important later on should we need it and then of course I’d throw a party out here in the center.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:27:48 Invite Orange, right?
Crystal Miles: 01:27:49 I’ll invite Orange.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:27:51 Okay. Mayor Collacott, what would you do with $1 million for the city?
Bob Collacott: 01:27:55 I’d pocket it and run right to Mexico. Well if I received $1 million grant, my view is I’d look at our priorities and my priority, number one priority is the safety of the kids in our community, whether they’re from Villa Park or whether they’re coming to Villa Park to go to school.
Bob Collacott: 01:28:13 We have a very hazardous situation I know along Serrano from Serrano Elementary and down around Cerro Villa. We’ve got a very toxic mix of kids running around and motorists who are anxious to get in and out to get to work. There have been numerous near misses. Also during Little League, we’ve got cars parked all along Serrano, along a very narrow road and I know every time I drive down that, unless I’m right on my Harley, I am just terrified because I’m afraid that a kid’s going to run out. We need some parking spaces for parents. We need some safe and more convenient pickup and drop off facilities.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:28:56 Thank you. Ms. Miles, you’re up next for the next one. Villa Park Road has excessive noise due to commercial vehicles, modified mufflers and aforementioned motorcycles. Are you in favor of noise enforcement?
Crystal Miles: 01:29:12 I would have to consult with our city manager and see what some of the options are. I’m not well versed on all the different possibilities.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:29:25 Okay, Councilwoman, you’re up next?
Diana Fascenelli: 01:29:27 You said Villa Park Road?
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:29:29 Villa Park Road noise enforcement.
Diana Fascenelli: 01:29:32 Villa Park Road, you’re coming off Katella, you go through two stop lights, and then you end up on Santiago. It’s a very, very busy road. Do I support a noise, anything? No, I don’t. You have trucks. You have cars. It’s a busy road. For those people who purchased a home along that road, you’re going to hear the noise but when you start talking about laws and noise, you have to be real careful because what are you talking about? Is it just the cars or is it the Villa Park band that is playing in the middle of the street? That’s a very touchy subject but quite frankly, I don’t think it’s that busy, of noise to be bothering anybody unless their house lives right there and it’s unfortunate that they purchased a home on such a busy street.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:30:17 Mayor?
Bob Collacott: 01:30:18 Well, I used to live on Morrow Circle, which backs half the houses back up to Villa Park Road and you cannot have a stand in those backyards and have a conversation with somebody who’s just five feet away from you sometimes with the noise that is generated and that’s even when the gravel operations are not running.
Bob Collacott: 01:30:39 Yeah, I think, I don’t know if noise enforcement is the right thing but certainly I think we need to go to the county and say look, that county arterial highway has expanded and has expanded in use over the years. A noise study is needed, and if your street is impacting our residents, then we need to ask the county to provide noise abatement or mitigation for residents to protect them, and that’s something we should do right away.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:31:09 Mr. Zimmerman?
Chad Zimmerman: 01:31:11 I would say that Villa Park Road is a major thoroughfare, that the people who live there, it’s like when you buy a house next to a freeway, and you hear the freeway noise all the time, you expect it. Is there something we could do to prevent excessive noise, something that one off instances where you have a lot of construction going on, or a motorbike parade going through? There might be, although I think those are probably a rare enough occurrence that you’d have to plan for them or you’d have to, as Mayor Collacott says, see if you could work with one of the other cities if they know something else is going to happen. If you have a big construction project, some other way to to indicate that there might be a better route for them to follow. We can really only encourage that stuff. I don’t think you can actually create laws around that that would change them.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:32:05 Okay, you’re up first for next question. What are your major achievement goals for the next four years if you were to be elected?
Chad Zimmerman: 01:32:20 There are a variety of things that are going to change. We’ve talked about some code enforcement and some ordinances that have changed. There are going to be a new set of challenges that come up that as we look at things, the biggest thing that I see as important is that our City Council needs to be able to cooperate with one another. I’ve met with each of the other candidates as well as current City Council members with the intention of a personal relationship and also a professional relationship such that we can all prove we can work together and I think that would be a huge advancement for our City Council to be able to work efficiently and respectfully together.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:33:03 Mayor Collacott?
Bob Collacott: 01:33:05 Well, I intend to continue to make a positive difference in our city and my key objectives would be to work with the resident engineers and the Infrastructure Management Advisory Committee to develop and implement asset management plans for infrastructure as I’ve described previously. I’d also like to champion the development and implementation of a plan to resolve the Wanda Greenbelt. That used to be a really nice area, was nice and green with trees. For some reason, the turf has been allowed to almost die and many trees have died, and we also have a line of fences that, from nine fences that back up to it. Everyone is different and in different stages of disrepair, so that’s something that we need to work on.
Bob Collacott: 01:33:51 I’d also like to work with OUSD again to develop safe on campus drop off and pick up facilities at Serrano Elementary in particular is a priority to protect the school children and to make things more convenient for the parents that have to drive on the way to work to drop off their kids.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:34:07 Thank you. Councilwoman?
Diana Fascenelli: 01:34:09 Can you repeat the question?
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:34:10 Yeah, what are your major achievement goals for the next four years, if you’re elected or reelected?
Diana Fascenelli: 01:34:16 To maintain the property rights that have been afforded to you when you moved to this city, and to keep homeowner association type ordinances out of the city. That is a very large priority because I see the future and we can’t take the rights that we have in this city away from us. That’s why we moved here and there are different communities to go to and we want to make sure that we keep Villa Park the same city that it was, why we came here and that’s it.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:35:00 Thank you. Ms. Miles?
Crystal Miles: 01:35:02 My top four priorities, I’m going to start with my first one, because the other three would be derived from this first one. What I would like to see is our City Council should be performance based. I would like to implement some sort of survey not so much on how are our services being carried out, like our trash or police, but more of how is our City Council doing? What can we do to service you better as a City Council? From that, we could derive then what really is important based on our community and then develop the other top three priorities based on whatever the survey says and make sure that we keep a check and balance system and make the community inclusive instead of exclusive.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:35:53 Thank you. Okay, our last question then for the evening before we go to our closing, and this is what will each of you personally do to ensure a more collegial and cooperative governing body? Mayor, you’re up first.
Bob Collacott: 01:36:07 Well, I think first of all, we need to really all agree to comply with Robert’s Rules of Order and the Robert’s Rules of Order is pretty simple. Get recognized before you speak. Don’t interrupt. Use your inside voice as they say in elementary school, but also one of the things we all need to do is if you get attacked, do as I’ve done and just ignore it and focus on getting things, your objectives done and move on. Nothing is accomplished by getting into crawling into the gutter with somebody who attacks you. Just let it go and hopefully, the issue will take care of itself.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:36:50 Ms. Miles?
Crystal Miles: 01:36:51 Will you repeat the question?
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:36:52 What will each of you personally do to ensure a more collegial and cooperative governing body?
Crystal Miles: 01:37:00 Well, I will personally make sure that the civility, the respect is restored back to the City Council. I also think that the new council coming forward has a great opportunity to be able to put everything behind them. Let’s move forward. Let’s make sure that we keep it civil and dignified. Get the respect back of the community. Quit creating this divisiveness and this lack of respect.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:37:33 Mr. Zimmerman?
Chad Zimmerman: 01:37:34 I think this is one of my strengths, hopefully, is that I’m able to bridge gaps in personalities and ideas when there are conflicts, finding the common ground and being able to find areas where we can find compromise or find a new way of presenting an idea. That’s something that I have done a lot in my life and I think that that’s exactly what our council needs. I can also say that I also maintain a civil and friendly demeanor most of the time, even under pressure or under attack. I think it’s important for us to maintain that level of professionalism and respect. Realize that we’re all volunteers up here. We’re all representing portions of the community, hopefully the whole community, but when we ignore one of the ideas of two members, or when we do that, we’re actually ignoring part of the community and we need to take everybody’s views into account and that’s something that I would promise to do.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:38:31 Councilwoman?
Diana Fascenelli: 01:38:32 Transparency and honesty will take care of all that.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:38:37 Thank you. With that, we’re going to you guys get ready for your two minute closing. We’re going to work our way opposite now across the dais. Mr. Zimmerman, we’re going to start with you for a two minute closing.
Chad Zimmerman: 01:38:48 Thank you very much. Thank you again for your time and for your professional way in handling this. It was very well done. Thank you to all the residents for spending your time to get informed. I know this is a long evening to go listen to City Council matters. I think it’s important to our city. I think all of the things that we do within our community to stay involved, to help each other, it’s great that you are here to see what we wanted to say, so that you can be informed voters.
Chad Zimmerman: 01:39:15 I also wanted to thank people behind the scenes that are ensuring that this gets broadcast efficiently. I know there’s a lot of work that goes in that maybe doesn’t get appreciated but thank you to all the other people helping out. I hope that you’ve all gotten some insight into our characters and the ideas that we represent.
Chad Zimmerman: 01:39:34 I invite residents to reach out to me personally if there’s a question that you had that you didn’t get answered. We can talk about some of the things that we’ve talked about tonight. The changes that we’re going to face in the next four years are going to be different ones and I think it’s our character that determines how we’re going to respond to those, and so I think that’s what matters. I want to say that you have three votes open for three spots and I would encourage you to vote for three candidates. If you vote for less, you’re not voting your full potential and each of your three votes counts the same.
Chad Zimmerman: 01:40:11 A vote for me is a vote to keep Villa Park safe and secure. I’ll support Orange County Sheriff Department, Orange County Fire Authority in all aspects of maintaining lower crime and getting assistance to residents that need it. A vote for me is a vote to maintain friendly, kind, respectful attitude that we need in City Hall and a vote for me is a vote to keep up Villa Park’s values. I believe in supporting city ordinances that preserve the rights of our citizens and I will be an independent and thoughtful and stabilizing voice on City Council, so I ask for your vote.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:40:48 Thank you. Ms. Miles?
Crystal Miles: 01:40:49 I also want to say thank you to you, to the foundation, to everyone who’s come out this evening as well as those at home. I don’t have all the answers. I haven’t sat on Council for the past four years, but I am feeling and I have the desire to sit up here and do the job for the next four years.
Crystal Miles: 01:41:11 I’d like to bring transparency and stability back to our City Council. I want to thank all those who have shown support for me and to my fellow candidates. I respectfully ask for your vote so that I may borrow one of these chairs out of the available three for November 6. I don’t like and I don’t agree with the vitriol and the instability that has occurred with our current City Council, and I think our residents also would agree that it has become very disruptive and upsetting.
Crystal Miles: 01:41:49 I feel our City Council should unite our community and not divide it and therefore again, I would like to offer to all the three candidates up here. My home is on the corner of Santiago and Lemon. I would like to move forward, put all this behind us. Let’s show unity. If you all three would like to put a sign on my lawn and let’s move forward and show the community that we can work together, then please, please place the sign on my lawn and I am hopeful that the other three candidates will as well offer the same to me. I respect everyone coming out. Again, if you’d like to ask me any questions or get clarification, I would love to have a discussion with you and I thank you all for coming out.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:42:32 Thank you. Councilwoman Fascenelli?
Diana Fascenelli: 01:42:35 Again, thank you everyone for coming out. I have spent countless hours listening to residents for six years, and I want to spend the next four years listening. I also want to work within our boundaries up here. We have five people that everybody voted for, not everybody sees things the same way because we have some residents who want sidewalks. We have some residents who don’t want sidewalks. The balance comes with our budget, our ordinances, our laws, our management of the city and the voices from everybody within the community, and that’s something that we have been successful in doing. Just because some of us don’t get our projects approved doesn’t mean that the city is running inefficiently or that the residents aren’t happy but there are five different people up here. We have five different visions but I know those five different visions all come from the residents. They didn’t come from our heads. We’re listening to you. I’d like to move forward and listen to you take your vision. Keep Villa Park the home that you live in, the city that you’re here. Be proud of it and I hope to serve you for the next four years
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:44:02 Thank you. Mayor Collacott?
Bob Collacott: 01:44:04 Well to paraphrase my friend Bill Nelson four years ago at the candidate forum, vote for me, because I’m the best candidate. When reelected, I will continue to contribute my time, energy and experience to make a positive difference by promoting public safety, maintaining fiscal responsibility and protecting home values. My key objectives include monitoring and fighting external threats to our community, including state housing mandates, adjacent developments and supporting greater local control over setting and regulating treatment in sober living homes, maintenance of our low crime rate and improve public safety by supporting Neighborhood Watch and the work of our Law Enforcement Advisory Committee.
Bob Collacott: 01:44:41 Maintenance of low crime rate is critical in maintaining our public safety and in promoting our property values. Working with the Infrastructure Management Advisory Committee to implement asset management plans for our streets, sewers and storm drains. These plans will provide guidance on cost effective management of these assets and identify budget needs. This will help our city to more effectively serve and protect our residents and improve property values.
Bob Collacott: 01:45:04 Implement a plan to resolve the Wanda Greenbelt. For over 30 years, the Greenbelt provided a pleasing entrance to our city. The city has been unable to adequately maintain the [inaudible 01:45:13] area and adjacent residents have made it clear that they do not want to be a park or in any way attract visitors to their backyards. I’ll work with the community to develop an affordable plan to renovate the Greenbelt.
Bob Collacott: 01:45:23 I’ll work with us OUSD to develop a safe on campus drop off and pick up facility at Serrano Elementary. There is currently a dangerous mix of energetic grade school children and motorists that has resulted in numerous near misses and a head on collision injuring four students just days ago. A safe alternative that is also more convenient for parents transporting their students is needed before a student is killed or injured.
Bob Collacott: 01:45:46 Thank you again for the opportunity to serve on Council, and with your vote, I will continue to make a positive difference. Thank you.
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:45:52 Thank you very much. Let’s give our candidates a round of applause. I’d like to thank the audience for their diligence and their interest in the candidates. Great job to all of you. Everyone could take a breath now. It’s over, and thank you to the audience for coming and being informed and also to the Villa Park Community Services Foundation. Let’s give them a round of applause as well
Carolyn Cavecche: 01:46:24 There may be candidate information outside but more importantly, do not forget to vote. If you don’t vote by mail, find a polling place on November 6. That’s a Tuesday. Thank you all so much.
2018 Villa Park Election News & Information
- Villa Park Election Results
- 4 candidates file for 3 open City Council seats
- Villa Park City Council Member Files Petition Against Own City, Mayor
- VP City Council Candidate Forum – Meet the candidates
- Incumbent Candidates Voting Records – Collacott, Fascenelli
- Villa Park City Council Voting Records
- Q&A with Villa Park City Council Candidates
- City Council Candidate Statements
- OUSD Candidate Statements
- How to Research Local Candidates for Election
- Villa Park Election Central – All local information, news and updates